The physics (n.物理學) world is abuzz (adj.喧鬧的) with news that a group of European (adj.歐洲的) physicists (n.物理學家) plans to announce Friday that it has clocked (v.測量速度) a burst (n.迸發、一束) of subatomic (adj.次原子的) particles (n.粒子) known as neutrinos (n.中微子) breaking the cosmic (adj.宇宙的) speed limit - the speed of light - that was set by Albert Einstein (n.愛因斯坦) in 1905.
If true, it is a result that would change the world. But that "if" is enormous (adj.巨大的).
Even before the European physicists had presented (v.發表) their results - in a paper (n.論文) appeared on the physics Web (n.萬維網) site (n.站) arXiv.org Thursday night and in a seminar (n.研討會) at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear (adj.核子的) Research (n.研究), on Friday - a chorus (n.異口同聲) of physicists had risen up on blogs (n.博客) and elsewhere (adv.其他地方) arguing that it was way too soon to give up on Einstein and that there was probably some experimental (adj.實驗的) error (n.誤差). Incredible (adj.極大的) claims (n.聲言、結論) require incredible evidence (n.證據).
"Before throwing Einstein on the bonfire (n.大火堆), you would like to see an independent experiment," said John Ellis (n.艾利斯), a CERN theorist (n.理論（物理學）家) who has published work on the speeds of the ghostly (adj.幽靈般的) particles known as neutrinos.
(The New York Times, September 22)
愛因斯坦在一九○五年奠定，宇宙的速度極限是光速。但歐洲一群物理學家周五卻打算公布，他們測量到一束叫作“中微子”的次原子粒子，速度竟快過這個極限，消息令整個物理學界喧鬧起來。
假若屬實，這項結果將會改變世界。但這是個很巨大的“假設”。
這群歐洲物理學家，周四晚把他們的結果以論文方式發表在物理學網站arXiv.org，周五則在歐洲核子研究中心（CERN）的研討會上宣讀。但即使在此之前，物理學家在博客及其他媒體已異口同聲表示，現在揚棄愛因斯坦的理論言之尚早，當中很可能有一些實驗誤差。結論既然如此強大，證據自然也要很強大。
歐洲核子研究中心理論物理學家艾利斯，曾發表著作討論中微子這種“幽靈粒子”。他說：“把愛因斯坦理論丟進火海前，我們要做另一次獨立實驗。”
（《紐約時報》，九月二十二日）
閱讀指引
1. neutrino (n) /nju:'tri:n?瑆?痸/，
new-TREEN-noh 中微子、微中子
解讀：neutrino由neutro-（中性的、neutral）和-ino（微小）組成，由意大利物理學家費米（Enrico Fermi, 1901-1954）命名，中文因而叫中微子，有時也叫微中子；它不帶電、質量極小，能穿透物質，因而被稱作ghostly particle（幽靈粒子）。
2. subatomic (adj) / s?瑔b?瑆't?忀m?笈k/，
sub-a-TOM-mick 次原子的、亞原子的
解讀：字根sub-解作次的、亞的、較低層的，名詞atom是原子，-ic則用作組成形容詞，subatomic因而解作次／亞原子的，即比原子更基本、更細小的；subatomic particle是次原子粒子，subatomic world是次原子世界。
3. bonfire (n) /'b?忀nfa?笈?瑆/，BON-fire 大火堆、篝火
解讀：bonfire本指用bone（骨頭）燒成的火堆，現在泛指在戶外用垃圾等東西燒成的大火堆，也指篝火，即在空曠地方或野外架木柴燃燒的火堆；文中末段的throw(ing) ... on the bonfire，即把……投進火
堆、丟進火海。
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